Transport: Traffic Light Neurosis

Since it scrapped its traffic light system four years ago, busy, industrial Bayonne, N.J. has had a substantial decrease in traffic mishaps. No scientist has explained why. But last week, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Cincinnati Physician Howard D. Fabing examined the behavior of the average motorist, found that traffic lights caused conditioned reflexes which made him as dithery as one of Russian Physiologist I.P. Pavlov's famous third-degreed dogs.

One of Professor Pavlov's dogs was taught that a circular light flashed on a screen meant food, that an elliptical light...

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